meaghann3

I also graduated may of 2015 and started my NP program this past summer. I am one of the youngest in my program and probably the most inexperienced, and I also come from a specialty (orthopedics). I will say that much of what we are learning will not be impacted from having been in a specialty and I think you have enough experience that you'll be fine (I have been!). I don't see any advantage in my classes now between myself and the other nurses who have more experience except for some of the older nurses (in their 40's) are having a hard time with the technology and are not as quick of learners. GO FOR IT!!!!! :)

I am in NP school as well but I am just beginning. I found out I was pregnant when I was accepted, and took my first 2 classes while I was pregnant (summer & fall, had my baby January 10th). I considered taking a class this spring because I thought it would be easy to take a class since I had 12 weeks off and babies sleep a lot-right? I am very glad I did not take a class this semester and here is why... I had an uncomplicated lady partsl delivery but it has taken me 7 weeks to be able to sit and walk distances comfortably due to 2 second degree tears I had (80% of women have tears after birth so it's safe to assume you will have a tear you will need to heal from). Not to scare you, but it was extremely painful and I am just now feeling back to my normal self. There is NO way I could have gone to class and sat in a chair while I was healing from that. You will be exhausted. Babies eat-wake-sleep cycles are only 1.5-3 hours the first couple of weeks and after that they are 2-4 hours. So yes, although they sleep a lot, once you are done feeding them, they are awake for a couple of minutes, sleep for an hour (2 if you're lucky) and you're right back to feeding them. It's extremely difficult to get anything done in that time period. I am seriously lucky if I get to take a nap, shower, and eat all in one day. If you have any complications with your pregnancy, delivery, or if your baby needs to be in the NICU, have surgery, etc. your plans for school will 100% be completely out the window Also, if you plan to breastfeed, it is a FULL TIME job in the beginning. Nobody warned me about this, but I literally fed my baby 10-12 times per day and each time it took minimum 30 minutes, usually closer to an hour once I burped them, changed sides, changed diaper. I honestly would just wait a few months and make sure you have your baby a few weeks after school ends. I was 35 weeks pregnant my last day of class in the fall semester and that was about as pregnant as I felt comfortable being in case I had a preterm delivery or something go wrong.. i was very lucky I didn't though and everything ended up fine.

I did a ton of research on schools in my area and applied to the one that was flexible with work (I work full time M-F). The classes are Friday nights and Saturday mornings every other week. Also, the program total costs 40,000, and I'm doing it part time so I can use tuition reimbursement from my work and can afford to pay the rest out of pocket. I applied to this one school and was accepted. My GPA was a 3.4 and I had no problems getting in. I think as long as you are above a 3.0 you're probably fine. NP school seems to be a lot less competitive than RN school since there are so many less applicants.

Ortho NPs in Wisconsin, especially if you are assisting in surgeries, make at least 100k, average 120k. Ortho is a big $$$ maker. Hope this helps!

I have a friend who is finishing up her NP who was a direct entry like you are speaking of. She did say the first 12 months were the hardest of her life, because it was a very rigorous curriculum to become an RN at an accelerated pace. Nursing is very stressful but there are specialties that are worse than others. I think women's health would be a less stressful specialty to get into. Also, it depends on what type of NP you would be. A family nurse practitioner can practice pretty much anywhere except in an ICU setting. An acute care NP can pretty much practice in the hospital. If you become a family NP, you can get certified in women's health but that doesn't limit you in the future to only doing that. Family NP is the broadest level that will afford you the most opportunities. Is there an NP you could shadow, to see if you like it? It wouldn't hurt to reach out and see. Check out this youtube video, explains really well the job demands of an NP

Always question the doctor when giving a beta blocker if the heart rate is below 60. Especially if they are symptomatic. They may have been rude, but cover yourself. If it would have caused any further issues, YOU would be on the line. Obviously we want to advocate for our patients. Cardiologists expect their HR to be lower on that, but with the other issues going on you were absolutely right to question.

I was an RN on inpatient ortho/neuro. I left my job because I was offered a full time position at an outpatient orthopedic surgery center- I also do pre/post! I LOVE MY JOB! It was the best decision I made in my entire life. I was worried about the hours (you never know what hours you work until the day before, but it's always within reason- 0600-1800). I love that it is no weekends or holidays, but you still maintain your critical thinking and nursing skills. You will get really good at starting IVs! If IVs aren't you thing, our docs are super nice about doing it if we can't get it. But, you will become a pro in no time. I always get my lunch break, and I really love taking care of my patients through the whole continuum of their stay at the ASC. I also call my patients the next day to see how they are doing. The main thing to consider is how busy the surgery center is. We are slow in Jan-May... meaning I am only working about 30 hours a week. But in December I was working 50 hours a week and getting over time. So, make sure you ask if you are guaranteed a certain amount of hours if there are no cases that day, or if there are opportunities to float to other ASCs. If you have a family to support and they give a lot of unpaid days off due to being slow, you may not want to take the job unfortunately.

I am from the Milwaukee area and started at UW-Milwaukee. I didn't get accepted into clinical so ended up transferring to WCTC and got my associates degree. However, I think this is the best thing that could have happened to me because I saved a ton of money on tuition going the ADN route. I then finished my BSN at the UW online BSN degree program (you pick the school closest to where you live). All of it was online except our last capstone class met a few times through out the semester. I absolutely loved WCTC and their pass rate for boards has been 98-100% for the last 8 years. I'm not gonna lie, nursing school is the toughest thing I ever did but was SO worth it!! I would look into the Madison Area Tech College, I do not believe they require you to obtain your CNA and then you could finish your BSN online while working as an RN so that you do not need to take out loans (or at least not as much if you went a more expensive route). Do keep in mind that no matter where you choose to go, you will need to do nursing pre-reqs even though you already have a degree. My tuition for my ADN was $130 a credit. Then my BSN cost me 15K to finish. Hope this helps!

Our patients post joint replacement for moderate to high risk for DVT received Lovenox BID and coumadin. Low risk got a full does aspirin. All had SCDs and Ted stockings.

You can go to PA school after Nursing school you don't have to be an NP.